Forage harvesters are agricultural harvesting machines that take up crop standing on a field during the harvesting operation, chop it, and deliver it to a transport vehicle through a discharge assembly such as an ejection elbow, ejection bow or transfer assembly. The position of the discharge assembly on the forage harvester can be adjusted in order to hit the transport vehicle as closely as possible and to load the transport vehicle uniformly. As a rule the discharge assembly can be rotated about the vertical axis and pivoted about a horizontal axis, in order to be able to adjust the height of the outlet end. Moreover a pivoted outlet flap is attached to the outlet end in order to control the ejection direction of the harvested crop. The aforementioned movements are performed by actuators that are actuated by an outside force such as hydraulic cylinders.
For transport operation on public roads the usual practice is to bring the discharge assembly into a transport position wherein it extends from the pivot bearing to the rear and its outlet end rests upon a deposit assembly. In some cases the harvesting machines are to be transported on a truck, a railroad freight car, a ship or the like. The discharge assembly is generally the highest point of the harvesting machine, even when in the transport position. In order to avoid exceeding the dimensions established for the transportation in traffic on public roads, the discharge assembly could be removed, however, this is very costly. It is also known to use so-called transport brackets, in order to bring the discharge assembly into a loading position that is lower than the transport position. The attachment and disassembly of the transport brackets, however, is relatively time consuming and error prone. The range of downward movement of the discharge assembly could also be enlarged, but this has the disadvantage that an operator could unintentionally put the discharge assembly in an inappropriate position during the harvesting operation.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved harvesting machine having a discharge assembly that overcomes these problems.